Sarutobi Hiruzen Reborn
by Cooprotis
Summary: The third Hokage of Konoha is given a second chance at life as the son of Jon Arryn.
1. Chapter 1

From the moment he first laid eyes on his son, Jon Arryn knew he was different. It was the eyes, his own brown eyes that stared back at him with quiet strength. They were too sharp, piercing like daggers. "Truly, like a hawk" he mused to himself.

Unfortunately, the birth had been too much for his wife's body and she had died for her child to live. Nonetheless, Jon was overjoyed to have a son and was resolved to raise him to be a true Arryn of the Vale. As he had promised his late wife. And so it was that the honorable third Hokage of Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was reborn as Hinrik Arryn.

The boy proved to be prodigious in many a field, speaking fully by 2 years of age and learning to read not much later. Once he could read he began to attack every book he could find with a singleminded intensity, and by the time he was 5 Jon had decided that his son was mature enough to begin learning the trials of being a lord. Hinrik was a joy for Jon to teach, seemingly already aware of the importance of their lessons. He had already developed a commanding aura befitting of a lord and Jon already felt quite confident that the next lord of the vale would be a great man. What was most impressive about his son though, was his perceptiveness. Jon could boldly state that his son was the most perceptive person he had ever met. His son could sniff out a lie that even the person telling it believed. He had once even seen his son derive the birthplace and age of a hedge-knight without ever speaking to the man. Hinrik was certainly different, but Jon had long since adapted to his sons oddities.

Things continued in much the same way until Hinrik was 8. It was then that he took on two boys to foster. Their names were Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon. Robert was a boisterous boy who didn't take much seriously, while Eddard, or Ned, had a stoic, serious attitude that hid a very caring and loyal heart. The two had already begun to form a close bond and Jon was unsurprised to see that his own son had already begun ingratiate himself to them. It was later that same year that Jon finally relented to his son's pestering and let him begin weapons training. Truthfully, Jon was sure his son could have started training much sooner, but a father was allowed to coddle his son every now and then.

Hinrik took to his martial training well, though he had a few oddities, the first of which was his taste in weaponry. His son proved to be quite gifted with a spear and even more oddly, always seemed to have a small armory's worth of knives hidden away on his person. Jon might have tried to get him to learn the sword, or bow as well but given his sons talent for his chosen weapon, he let him focus on the spear. Hinrik would always push himself hard, once again displaying his drive and by the next year he had begun to spar with Ned and Robert. He still was no where near as strong as the boys, who were both 4 years older than him and built quite strongly. Still, Hinrik made up the difference in strength by being ruthlessly efficient in every spar, never drawing out a fight if he had the chance to end it.

It was through sparring with Robert, that the two boys were finally able to make more of a connection, though it would never be as deep of a bond as they both shared with Ned.

Hinrik had always been closer to Ned than Robert, and before he proved to be a good opponent, Robert had little interest in the younger boy besides a general fondness.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next 4 years, the boys grew together, constantly pushing each other in their spars, and developing their own styles of fighting. Hinrik also grew in other areas, nearly obsessing over his lordly duty's.

Not much of note occurred in those 4 years besides the untimely death of Lord and Lady Baratheon. So, Hinrik used the years to tour the Vale a number of times, as to familiarize himself with his banner men. Besides these trips, he stuck by his fathers side, slowly taking on more and more of the duty's of an Arryn of the Vale.

Many of Jon's lords had already begun to report how impressed they were by his heir's decision making. Now however, for the first time, Hinrik would leave the vale. A great tourney was to be held at the ruined keep of Harrenhal, and nearly every lord would be in attendance. So both Arryn's were journeying to the Riverlands so as not to miss such an unprecedented event.

For the most part the tourney went as expected. Hinrik didn't participate in any of the contests, a holdover from a time when keeping ones skills unknown was a necessary precaution.

Instead he spent his time acquainting himself with as many lords as possible, taking this tourney as a chance to begin building good relations he was sure he would need as the lord of the Vale. Unfortunately, few of them were capable of holding his interest for very long.

There were some notable exceptions, like The sour faced lord of horn hill Randyl Tarly, who he ended up playing quite a few games of cyvassy with. Or Howland Reed, whose family controlled the swamplands of the neck. Hinrik had read of how the Reed's had defended the North from countless invasions, using poison and guerrilla tactics that reminded Hiruzen quite strongly of Amegakure Shinobi. Howland himself appeared to be quite shy, but after Hinrik drew him into a conversation about some of the poisonous plants that could be found in the Neck, Hinrik felt that his comparison to the old Salamander's village wasn't too far off the mark.

Ned had also introduced him to his family, and the Starks were all quite interesting to talk to, but for the most part Hinrik talked to Ned and young Benjen. Brandon Stark was a bit too feral for his tastes, and Hinrik would rather not earn Roberts ire by getting too close to Lyanna Stark, Roberts betrothed.

Oddly enough, the person Hinrik found himself in the company of most often, was Princess Elia Martel. Apparently his use of the spear had reminded her of her brother Oberyn, and she had been charmed enough by his manners upon their first meeting that she invited him to sit with her from time to time and watch the events. Not that Hinrik minded, as he genuinely found the Princess to be quite good company. it also served to boost his image and give him a chance to observe the royal family first hand.

Unfortunately, what he saw wasn't good. Elia was kind enough, but King Aerys was clearly insane and Prince Rheagar was oddly blank and uncaring.

Perhaps Rheagar was just reserved, but Hinrik chose to withhold from forming any opinions of the Prince since he couldn't get a read of the man.

So, at the end of the Tourney, when the Crown Prince foolishly named Lyanna Stark as his Queen of love and beauty instead of Elia. Hinrik simply concluded that Rheagar had inherited some of his fathers madness, and went about consoling Elia and calming a furious Robert.

However, Hinrik wouldn't learn the depth of Rheagar's madness until he was back in the vale, where he would hear of both Lyanna's disappearance with Rheagar Targaryen, and the subsequent executions of both lord Rickard Stark, and his heir Brandon when they attempted to retrieve her.


	3. Chapter 3

After Ned's unfortunate ascension to Warden of the north, things started moving rather quickly. Army's were mobilized, and Hinrik found himself once again preparing to be plunged into war.

Jon Arryn had wanted Hinrik to stay in the Vale, as even if he was quite skilled, he was still only a boy of 13. However Hinrik would not hear of it and demanded that he be allowed to come. Some may have considered it childish, but Jon knew how serious his son was when he wanted to be, so with quite a bit of grumbling.

Both father and son set off to raise the banners of the Vale, while Ned and Robert returned to their homelands to do the same.

The basic plan they had come up with, was for each of them to secure their own lands first, putting down any loyalist lords before taking their forces to Riverun to see if they could sway Hoster Tully and the Riverlands to their cause. Without the Riverland's support all of them knew that they simply wouldn't have the numbers to win this rebellion. Since both the North and the Vale simply weren't as populated as the other regions of Westeros, save perhaps Dorne.

Honestly, Hinrik was quite tired of war and all the scheming that came with it, having already lived through 3 of them in his past life, but he had always been foolishly loyal, so despite the fact that he could escape the violence with a word to his father, he couldn't bring himself to abandon the people he had grown close to in this life.

As He made his own calculations, Hinrik was sure Ned would have the easiest time rousing his lords, they were already frothing with rage at the death of their beloved lord. Robert on the other hand, Hinrik expected to take a bit longer as the Baratheon's hold on the storm lands was no where near as fanatical as the Stark's.

Hinrik himself was fairly confident that they would find rousing the vale nearly as easy as rousing the North, and was happy to see that he was right, there were very few houses in the vale that would chose to side against his father, who had long proven to be a good and wise ruler. Nonetheless it was nice to see confirmation of the respect and loyalty everyone held for his family.

There were however, a handful of houses that "remained loyal to the king" and so it was necessary that those unruly lords be brought to heel, before the Vale could truly go to war.

It was perhaps a good thing that Hinrik had this chance to show that he could be a reliable commander, before the truly dangerous fighting began, and gave his over anxious father an excuse to keep him away from the fighting.

An unexpected, though not unwelcome opertunity these skirmishes provided him with, was a chance to get closer with his cousin, and only other close family member, Denys Arryn. Both of them were eager to prove themselves, if for slightly different reasons. Due to their eagerness to be in the thick of the fighting, they spent much of the short campaign through the Vale in each others company.

With his cousin at his side they were able to accomplish any task they were given quite handily. They cut through the enemy lines with little resistance, especially with the help of his new spear.

That was another upside of his choice to go to war, his father had gifted him a new blade. Apparently house Arryn was in possession of a Valerian steel dagger, won long ago in some forgotten battle, and his father had chosen to have the dagger reforged for his son into a spearhead. So as to give him every available advantage.

It wasn't quite his unbreakable Adamantine staff but Hinrik was rather taken with his new spear. The rippling of the blade was quite interesting, and Hinrik's style of fighting became just that much more deadly, now that he was once again confident in the superiority of his weapon.


	4. Chapter 4

With Hinrik and his cousin's competent leading of the Vale's forces to victory, it took very little time for Jon Arryn to deem his homeland secure, and give the order to march for Riverrun.

They reached the Riverlands quite quickly, and made it to the Tully's seat with little resistance. At Riverrun they were met with the full might of the Northern host as well as a deeply chagrined Ned, who mournfully admitted that Lord Hoster Tully had insisted that Ned marry his daughter Caitlin. Who just so happened to be his recently deceased brother's betrothed.

Ned being the honorable idiot he was, had hardly hesitated before agreeing.

Perhaps the betrothal was a fortunate, as it bonded the Tully's to their cause more heavily than before. However Hinrik had no doubt that the trout would try to extract a higher price from them before he committed his forces. It was a prudent strategy, but one that, if Hinrik were correct would leave him in a loveless marriage if he did not do something to nip it in the bud.

That night, after a welcoming feast, Jon Ned and Hinrik were all invited to speak with Lord Tully in private.

As Hinrik expected, Lord Hoster wasted little time stating his expectation for Hinrik to marry his second daughter.

It seemed rather clear to Hinrik that by already tying himself to Ned there was no way Lord Hoster wouldn't be joining their cause, but for some reason his father was not dismissing the Tully's proposal outright. He supposed his father, ever the diplomat did not wish to anger their new allies by snubbing them.

_Well_.

Hinrik held no such inclination.

Quite serendipitously Lord Hoster had just asked him what Hinrik what he thought of his second daughter.

"She is quite fair my Lord"

That was true enough, though he had only seen the girl for a moment during the feast. At the compliment Lord Hoster chuckled

" I should hope you think so, else it will be quite awkward when you marry"

At that Hinrik chuckled along with the river lord, before his attitude abruptly changed to something quite a bit sharper.

"Ah ha ha but you see **I do not wish to marry."**

Ned, who at this point had retreated to the back of the office to nurse on a mug of ale, choked on his drink before staring at his friend with unhidden surprise.

Jon's eyes widened in alarm as he felt the power behind his sons words. Rarely did Hinrik flex his undeniable aura, often preferring to sit back and just observe, but that did not mean Jon had forgotten how his son could control a room with nary a word or two.

Hoster for his part flinched before reddening and opening his mouth, looking quite ready to berate this impertinent boy, but before he could, Jon cut in.

"Excuse my son, it seems I need to have a word with him before we continue"

Jon wasn't dumb, and he could easily see that the situation was quickly deteriorating, so before things could escalate any further Jon herded his son out of the room as quickly as possible.

Leaving behind an irate Riverlord and a gaping Ned Stark.


End file.
